Chapter 51
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Chapter 51: The New Game Is Ready!
“Hey sister, what’s the deal with this Lu Shiqing? So generous, just gave us 5 million like it was nothing. If we pool some of our funds and borrow a bit more from the bank, maybe we could…”
After hanging up the phone, Ye Youran couldn’t help but feel the urge to get Ye Xiao to restart their previous project.
“Fish-for-brains sister, I told you already—when I said I was done with that game, I meant it. But as for making games, I do have some new ideas.”
Previously, Ye Xiao was driven purely by enthusiasm, only having done a simple investigation into the gaming market in this world without really delving deep. But now, she felt like a completely different person, as though she’d been reborn.
To create her new game, “Fantasy Beast Palu,” she’d need more than just the basic modules available in the game editor. It would also require extensive additional programming.
With the money they currently had, making “Fantasy Beast Palu” would require them to tighten their belts, and even then, success was far from guaranteed—especially since they didn’t know any programming.
After getting close with Lu Shiqing last night, Ye Xiao took another, more thorough look at the current top games in the market. She discovered that in this world, even the classic sandbox game Minecraft didn’t exist.
The original Minecraft, known in Chinese as My World, was developed by Mojang Studios, a game made of pixel blocks created by Notch using Java. The simplicity was shocking.
Yet this simple game made Notch a fortune. The popularity of Minecraft among gamers worldwide needs no elaboration—it is the second best-selling game globally, right after Tetris.
In 2014, Notch sold Mojang Studios and Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, catapulting him to become one of the richest in the gaming industry.
If you looked at the 2015 World’s Billionaires List, you’d find Notch proudly listed at number 12. And to add to the envy, Notch was only 35 that year.
But in this world, Ye Xiao didn’t even need to know Java to make a game like this, she could use a ready-made template.
It was surprising that no game company here thought a sandbox game, where you dig pixel blocks in an open world to build your own creations or challenge pixel-block monsters, would appeal to anyone. But Ye Xiao was determined to show them this game would be a hit.
Initially, she was worried that since such a game hadn’t been made before, she might not find a similar template. But soon enough, she realized she needn’t worry—she found a sandbox game template in the resource library.
This template belonged to a domestic game company, whose management had scrapped the project before it ever reached the market, killing the pixel-block sandbox game concept in its cradle. The project team decided to sell the template to recoup some losses.
Since the template seemed dull and tedious, featuring only a pile of pixel blocks, the rights to it went up for sale, with the price dropping again and again. Now, they were even selling the full intellectual property rights.
If Ye Xiao had known about this earlier, she would’ve mercilessly mocked the company exec who’d made that decision. She’d love to see just how much that company’s boss would regret it once she succeeded.
Owning all the IP rights to this world’s sandbox games meant that any similar pixel-block sandbox game that appeared could legally be defended under copyright law.
However, antitrust laws prevented her from monopolizing it, so once her game took off, she could open the template’s usage rights to the public.
“Only 100,000? That’s so cheap!”
Ye Xiao was thrilled, as the template’s cost was just 100,000 Chinese yuan—an asset worth $2.5 billion in her mind. Honestly, even if it had cost a million, she wouldn’t have hesitated.
After buying the template, Ye Xiao successfully loaded the basic pixel sandbox world model into her editor. It already had that familiar feel, though there were some differences.
Compared to her previous world’s Minecraft, this model, although also made of pixel blocks, had far more refined graphics.
Now that she had the basic gameplay, it was time to fill it with art resources. These included battle effects, pixel-style monsters, plants, animals, various types of pixel blocks, and crops for farming—all of which Ye Xiao casually modified and then integrated into the game.
Other expenses included UI design, music, sound effects, and renting cloud servers.
After buying everything she needed, Ye Xiao took a look at her first version of My World.
She test-ran it on her own computer. Since it wasn’t based on Java and wasn’t a foreign game, the usual barriers for domestic players no longer applied. The game ran astonishingly smoothly.
Of course, any issues with accessibility could be overcome by the players’ enthusiasm.
As for the main character, originally named Steve, Ye Xiao quickly changed his name to something more down to Earth, Gou Dan’er. Of course, players would be able to rename the character, as it wouldn’t make sense for everyone to be called Gou Dan’er.
Steve’s brown hair, tanned skin, and purple eyes were also changed by Ye Xiao for black hair, black eyes, and yellow skin.
Finally, Ye Xiao removed the initial exploration limits, allowing infinite free exploration and automatic generation of new weather and landscapes—this was how Minecraft was truly meant to be.
Otherwise, with such a small area, what could players possibly create?
As for additional features, they would rely on player creativity or future updates.
Of course, Ye Xiao planned to delegate further development to hired staff once the game gained traction.
And just like that, a game that generated $2.5 billion in revenue for its creator was born in Ye Xiao’s hands.
At that moment, Ye Xiao felt a bit unreal.
Her total expenses hadn’t even exceeded 300,000, with the main costs being the template and server.
To make sure she wasn’t dreaming, Ye Xiao dashed out of her room and grabbed Shen Yunchu, who was passing by.
Meanwhile, Ye Youran was pondering what Yun-Xiao Games, now with nearly 8 million in starting capital thanks to the 5 million, should do next.
If it’s a game, what kind of game? A suggestive card game, a battle game? A simulation game?
Ye Youran was feeling overwhelmed.
“Fish-for-brains sister, my new game is ready! Come and help me test it!”
Author’s Note: PS: The game development process referenced Qing Jie’s “Failure Becomes the Richest Man”. 5 updates today, with at least 3 more to go!
Riliane666
Of course it’s f*cking Chinese character and name really why do that if you’re want to change why not turn the character into a loli/women too then it better than just this alone